WGA nominates Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Pillars of Eternity, Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Witcher 3 for 2016 Writers Guild Award

Posted on January 12, 2016 by John Scalzo

wgaThe nominees for the 2016 Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing were announced by the Writers Guild of America yesterday.

The WGA bestowed nominations on four titles this year, including Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Pillars of Eternity, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It’s hard to pick a frontrunner at this point, but Syndicate is the seventh game in the Assassin’s Creed franchise to be nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing since the WGA began honoring writing for video games in 2008. The complete list of nominees can be found here:

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (Ubisoft)
Story: Marc-Alexis Cote, Hugo Giard, Corey May, Jeffrey Yohalem
Narrative Director: Corey May
Lead Writer: Jeffrey Yohalem
Assistant Narrative Director: Melissa MacCoubrey
Scriptwriters: Richard Farrese, Russell Lees, Mark Llabres Hill, James Nadiger, Jared Schincariol, Travis Stout, Ceri Young
Additional Senior Writer: Paul Monk
Additional Writing: Judith Flanders, C.J. Kershner, Gabrielle Shrager, Danny Wallace

Pillars of Eternity (Obsidian Entertainment)
Lead Writer: Eric Fenstermaker
Writers: Carrie Patel, Olivia Veras
Additional Writing: Chris Avellone, Jeff Husges, Matt MacLean, Jorge Salgado, Josh Sawyer, George Ziets

Rise of the Tomb Raider (Microsoft)
Lead Narrative Designer: John Stafford
Narrative Designer: Cameron Suey
Lead Writer: Rhianna Pratchett
Additional Writer: Philip Gelatt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt)
Lead Writer: Marcin Blacha
Lead English Writer: Borys Pugacz-Muraszkiewicz
Writers: Arkadiusz Borowik, Aleksandra Motyka, Bartosz Ochman, Karolina Stachyra, Jakub Szamalek
Additional Writers: Marcin Batylda, Michal Galek, Tomasz Marchewka, Robert Oglodzinski, Rafal Praszalek, Artur Sliwinski, Stanislaw Swiecicki, Pawel Zych
Story: Marcin Blacha, Jakub Szamalek

The winner of the 2016 Writers Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in Videogame Writing will be announced on Saturday, February 13.

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Be Disturbed (as in, the band Disturbed) by this week’s Rock Band 4 DLC Update

Posted on January 12, 2016 by John Scalzo

The men and women of Harmonix must really love Disturbed. The Chicago-based metal band will be the featured act in a downloadable content pack for Rock Band for the fourth time. The Disturbed Pack 04, the first for the band since the release of Rock Band 4, is available to download now.

Priced at $5.49, Disturbed Pack 04 will include a pair of tracks from the band’s most recent album (“The Vengeful One” and “Immortalized”), as well as the song “Warrior” from the 2010 album Asylum. All three songs can also be purchased individually for $1.99 apiece.

You can get a preview of all three songs from Disturbed Pack 04 in the trailer embedded above.

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The Games of January 2016

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Warp Zoned Staff

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January is typically a slow month for new game releases, but this January might be slower than ever. But a huge number of highly-acclaimed indie games will be making their way to the PS4 and Xbox One this month, so that’s something to look forward to. Read on to find out what other games will be available this month…

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Posted in Features, Top Story |

Daily Scoop: January 11, 2016 – Always more Fallout 4 shirts

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Nicole Kline

It’s been a crazy weekend filled with board games and me being sick! I ended up doing only a fraction of what I had planned because I was too sick to do the rest. The good news is I got some actual rest, which included a lot of Persona 4 Golden, and even managed to sneak in a little Fallout 4.

Let’s take a look at today’s deals, shall we? There’s no new Humble Bundle yet, but they do have a new list of games on sale this week at the Humble Store. The Falcon Collection is $7.49, Monochroma is $6.79, and 8 Days is $4.99.

Over at Steam, there are 134 new Weeklong Deals. Pick up The Typing of the Dead: Overkill for $4.99, Space Pirates and Zombies for $4.99, and Deponia: The Complete Journey for $6.79. Today’s Daily Deal is the language-learning game Influent. There are over a dozen languages you can learn, and each one is just $1.99!

Let’s check out today’s selection of shirts!

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Posted in Daily Scoop |

Warpback: What We Played in December 2015

Posted on January 11, 2016 by Warp Zoned Staff

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Another year is in the books and so is another month of gaming with your friendly neighborhood Warp Zoned staffers! In addition to hiding from the (not-so) wintry weather to work on our backlogs, we also found our stockings overflowing with new games after hanging them from the chimney with care. If you’re looking for a few end-of-year recommendations, look no further than after the break.

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Posted in Features, Top Story |

Coldwood’s inspiration for Yarny and Unravel… “What if we could make a game about love?”

Posted on January 11, 2016 by John Scalzo

“What if we could make a game about love?”

This sentiment is expressed several times in the video above by Coldwood’s Creative Director, Martin Sahlin, as he talks about the inspiration behind Unravel, and its adorable main character, Yarny. The developer revealed that Yarny’s red string is meant to symbolize the “bond” between people and that its tethered to something very important at the start of the game. He also shared a nice story about creating the first concept art for Unravel on a family camping trip with a handmade Yarny doll (and with his kids serving as an impromptu focus group). Excuse me, I think I have something in my eye…

Unravel will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One on February 9.

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New trailer for Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India released ahead of January 12 launch

Posted on January 11, 2016 by John Scalzo

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India will be released tomorrow, January 12, for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. To get fans ready for the franchise’s next 2.5D installment, Ubisoft recruited Lead Designer Matt Duff to narrate this brand new gameplay trailer.

Prospective players will be able to see many of Arbaaz Mir’s stealthy secrets, including smoke bombs, sound darts, a grappling hook, disguises, and his trusty Trident Blade. There’s also a brief look at the game’s futuristic Challenge Mode, along with the tougher Plus and Plus Hard difficulty levels.

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Insert Quarter: Does the Oculus Rift’s $600 Price Tag Make it a Platform?

Posted on January 10, 2016 by John Scalzo

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Insert Quarter is our showcase for some of the best and most interesting writing about video games on the Internet.

The general public was understandably blindsided when Oculus announced earlier this week that its Oculus Rift virtual reality headset would be priced at $600. That kind of financial outlay is usually reserved for a brand new game console or the latest and greatest iPhone.

GamesIndustry.biz’s Rob Fahey believes that this extravagant price tag repositions the Rift as a “platform” that must be supported instead of a “gadget” to be tried. Oculus will need to join the ranks of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to ensure the Rift has enough content to support a growing audience of gamers:

That brings us back to Oculus Rift and its $600 price point (which is $600 minimum – expect it to be significantly higher in other territories). Six hundreds bucks is a platform, in the eyes of the vast, vast majority of consumers. $300 may, for a fairly broad swathe of consumers with decent disposable income, be worth a punt just to “see what it’s like”, to own the latest thing, to show off to friends; $600 needs to justify its existence in far broader terms. Oculus Rift’s pricing pushes it squarely into the position of being a platform, and it must present and justify itself in those terms. In short, now that the price is on the table, Oculus has to prove itself on a harsh frontier that has often sunk even the toughest and most deep-pocketed of challengers; it has to deliver software, software and more software.

The full article is available for your perusal at GamesIndustry.biz.

Posted in Insert Quarter, PC |